I'm curious about the policy on the forum in terms of nicknames for animal species. Examples would include:Stink weasels (skunks)Danger noodle (snakes in general)Cat snakes (ferrets)Trash pandas (raccoons)Hairless apes (human beings (which are technically animals))Is this considered to be under name calling or would it be considered its own thing because it's species wide?

I think hairless ape would be considered an insult by most so I'd avoid that unless you were just referring to yourself that way.

I personally don't really like the others but wont disallow them as I believe most people know the internet joke on those but if someone does say they don't like it when referring to their animal then you should listen and not do so again with theirs.

There's even a book called the "naked ape". People get offended by EVERYTHING, if they get offended by the fact that we're primates, it's their problem.

My main interest is in parrots, dogs, toothed whales and snakes.Future animals I want to have when we have land are camels, wolfdogs/wolves, coyotes or jackals, striped hyena or aardwolf. Also poultry, rabbits water buffalo and/or yak for livestock.

I suppose it depends a lot on the context used but subtitles often do not translate well via the web. As a general rule someone calling someone else an ape has always been used as a insult rather than a term of endearment. Even if you really love gorillas and chimps you know what was meant by the comment and it's that intent that is insulting. Even if the intent is different by the poster because the intent is normally an insult the recipient is likely to take it that way. It does not hurt to think things through and try to avoid hurting peoples feelings.

I know it's much more popular to not care about anyone else's feelings and just say whatever the heck you want and if they get hurt too bad their own fault but that is NOT how we do things here. It's really no fun to be on a forum where people are being abrasive and fighting all the time. Though yes we've had to deal with the opposite as well "they're all attacking me!!" when people just disagreed in a civil way. We don't put up with that for long either as it's actually a passive aggressive attack of it's own.

It used to be called common courtesy to care about the feelings of others.

As a wolfdog owner, and northern breed dog owner, I wouldn't use either of those. Ever. People are already waaayyyyy too quick to call my dogs "pure wolf" or "coyote" or whatever wild animal is on their mind when they see them, and usually, the one they are calling "pure wolf" is my non-wolfdog husky/shepherd mutt. I've even had incidents with law enforcement officers who couldn't tell the difference between my doggy dog and this. My dog is reactive towards men. If he were to bite someone and they decided to call him a wolf (or wolfdog), he would be put down.

The rest of the nicknames are cute because it isn't dangerous for those animals to be called those things.

Here's where I show my age, but why would you have a nickname for an animal? especially when its longer than their actual name? Coons- trash panda? I usually go for heathen devil monster child, but that in referring to a specific coon and usually only when I'm POed at something she's done.

Trefoil wrote:Here's where I show my age, but why would you have a nickname for an animal? especially when its longer than their actual name? Coons- trash panda? I usually go for heathen devil monster child, but that in referring to a specific coon and usually only when I'm POed at something she's done.

Because sarcastic nicknames are a form of joking around that some people find fun or amusing. Also, according to the Brookfield Zoo in Il, raccoons are believed to be descendants of the red panda, therefore making them technically pandas. They're both nocturnal, have similar fur patterns, climb trees frequently, and have similar diets. Raccoons might have evolved the hands thing in the Americas after geographic speciation occurred. The theory is that red pandas might have migrated up into Russia and went over the land bridge in Alaska that has since broken up and then proceeded to migrate down the continent, developing distinct subspecies as they went (i.e. most southern species are physically smaller except for the Texas Raccoon and Raccoons in Florida have been known to breed year round rather than having the distinct breeding seasons of other raccoons). However, if people find the association with trash to be offensive, they could just call them American Pandas.TL;DR: Raccoons are related to red pandas, so some people on the internet started to call them Trash Pandas (although that might be the pattern that they were going for at first) and it spawned a thing on reddit where people started making nicknames for animals.

I guess I just can't see anyone that has had experience with coons calling them "nick names". Nick names are for individuals and usually not used to denigrate. Maybe its like rug rats, I can call my kids that but you better not.

My main interest is in parrots, dogs, toothed whales and snakes.Future animals I want to have when we have land are camels, wolfdogs/wolves, coyotes or jackals, striped hyena or aardwolf. Also poultry, rabbits water buffalo and/or yak for livestock.

It's a generational thing mostly. A common way to deal with stress is to, like, "not adult" for awhile. These nick names are essentially baby talk and a way for not adulting. I don't mean that to be insulting or anything. Just how I see this working. It's meant to be light hearted but not all will see it the same. Which is why I said okay but with the caveat of not doing it with someone if they say they don't like it.

Some of them play on certain stereotypes we might like to see gone is one reason it does annoy me some. I mean the noodle part of danger noodle sounds nice but it still calls them dangerous so encourage the fear of them though some may see the more silly name as making them more relateble, so there's two side. But considering you can go to the zoo and hear people call the tiger a lion and the lion a tiger, I still lean to using proper names most of the time.

On the other hand when I didn't know the name of some birds I took photos of the other day I did it myself and called them tuffed cute things but later updated to add the real name too once I found it out.

Now my post is kind of wishy-washy, lol. Cuz it can be fun but it does have some draw backs.

TD/LR it's cool long as others in the thread are cool with it and I understand it's meant to be silly.

TamanduaGirl wrote:It's a generational thing mostly. A common way to deal with stress is to, like, "not adult" for awhile.

This is exactly what I was going for. This is more of a fun joke and isn't meant to be taken seriously. Calling a ferret a cat snake or rug shark isn't really meant to be offensive, but I can understand how something like that could be misinterpreted, especially with situations like what sarajeku said in terms of the nickname housewolf.

sarajeku wrote:If he were to bite someone and they decided to call him a wolf (or wolfdog), he would be put down.

I could also see the association to garbage and such that would come with the nickname trashpanda for raccoons could be taken the wrong way too. With all of these, it would be very important to make sure that the context is understood as more of a joke than anything serious.